Formulas
by Braushe
Summary: Aoi  OC  and Ed are caught in the Hiroshima Bombing. Rated for gory-ish stuff and future stuff. Oneshot, Elricest, AU


Right, first story, oneshot, I'm horrible at writing these notes.

Braushe doesnt own FMA, if she did, there would be much more yaoi.

~Formulas

It smelled like fire. Flecks of ash floating around in the air, dying flames lapping over the sides of fallen buildings and plants. The square looked deserted until you took a long look around and saw the corpses littering the ground. Few were very recognizable, the radiation from the bomb had gotten to them, melted their flesh until most of what was left of them was only bones. Looking down on my own hands, I wondered how I was so lucky, with only minor burns forming patches of scabs over my skin. My uniform was torn and blackened, and my long black hair was matted and tinted gray by dust, but those were the least of my worries. Water. I ran my eyes over the scene, searching for my tan canvas bag, and spotted it sprawled over a fallen tree. After testing my weight on both legs to make sure no bones were broken, I scrambled over to the bag and pried it open with my ash-stained hands. A small search of the inside proved successful and I lifted out my once blue now black metal bottle, finally quenching my thirst.

The last thing I remembered was hearing the sirens over the radio, running for shelter even while knowing nothing could save me or anyone else from what was coming. My family yelling,

"Aoi, run! Save yourself!" and me, tearing down streets, leaving them behind.

"Find shelter as soon as possible, we have received word, America will be bombing Hiroshima!" The radios screamed those words over and over again, they were probably still at it even once the screech of the falling bomb drowned them out. Then there was light, followed by darkness that seemed to go on forever, screams, slowly dying out to silence. I wondered if this had happened to all of Japan. I doubted it, the radios would have said "Japan." Not just "Hiroshima." That gave me a small glimmer of hope, I was near the boarder of Hiroshima, I could make it out and find safety, living civilization, if I tried.

"Is that… water?"

I froze, hearing a human voice, followed by a shuffling noise. I slowly turned my head. An American boy, though he seemed fluent in Japanese, about my age give or take a few years, was standing about 20 feet away from me, half hidden by part of a collapsed building. He had long blond hair, tied back into a ponytail, and was wearing black jeans and a white button-up shirt, both torn in places. He seemed less lucky than I was, radiation had gotten to his hands, which now looked slightly deformed.

"Who are you...?" I asked before remembering his question, and I held out the bottle. He saw and limped over, something seemed wrong with his left leg, and took the bottle, taking a long drink before replying in a voice that was slightly less raspy than before.

"My name is Edward... but, call me Ed. I came here from America to visit my younger brother... I can't say I was expecting this." He said with a soft laugh.

"I'm Aoi, and even though I've always lived here... I wasn't expecting anything like this either." I stole the bottle back from Edward and took a long drink, finishing off what was left before starting a stream of questions.

"Your Japanese is good for an American. You said you're visiting your brother, does he live here? How old is he?" I said as I put the bottle back in my bag and slung it over my shoulder. I heard Ed laugh before replying,

"That's a lot of questions. Well, I'm not American, I'm German. I studied Japanese once with my brother before he moved here. He's 18, a year younger than I am."

If it weren't for the situation we were in, I would have laughed. Ed was 19? I had guessed he was 16 at the most, he was short.

We were both silent for a couple minutes before I stood up and spoke,

"What are we doing, sitting around like this? I don't know about you, but we're close to the boarder, we should be able to find... un-bombed civilization in a couple days if we move."

This seemed to surprised Ed, his eyes widened.

"We're close to the boarder? How many miles is that? 15, 20 at the most?" Ed looked down at his hands before mumbling, probably to himself,

"I might still get to see him..." I guess he meant his brother. Because of his hands, I knew he had radiation, which could only be treated in a hospital. He had probably though he would die out here, never see his brother again. He smiled at the realization before standing up and holding out his hand to me.

"Aoi, I think we will make it out of this after all. Actually, I promise it." He said, boldly, as I took his hand in return. I only had to say,

"I know we will." Before we started walking in the direction I knew would lead us to the boarder, to Matsue.

Dust and ash were swirling around in the air, making both Ed and I cough. It had been a day and a half, and the water bottle was almost empty again. I looked around for a house that might still have running water, to no avail, and kept walking. Our strong resolve from that morning had evaporated in the heat. I kept thinking,

"We're almost there, any minute now." But there still wasn't any sign of civilization, or

survival.

"Any minute now, any minute..." I looked over to see Ed muttering the words I had just been thinking in a voice made raspy again by lack of water. Than I heard a different noise, other than the sound of Ed's voice. It sounded like yelling, screaming, laughing, close, but not close enough to see who was making it. I know Ed heard it too, he lifted up his drooping head and I saw his eyes were wide. We both quickened our pace, and within thirty minutes of walking in silence, a hazy view of a small town, partially destroyed by the blast, but un-evacuated and still filled with life, came into sight. I saw a few children look up from what looked like drawing on the ground with chalk, and point their chubby fingers at us, yelling to their parents. Slowly, more people looked our way and some started walking towards us. Soon people, bustling, offering help, surrounded us. I was in a daze, and before I knew it, we were sitting in someone's house and a woman was bandaging up Ed's hands.

"Your lucky, you two. I don't know how you did it. None of us do. Getting out of Hiroshima, walking all the way here to Matsue, and while you have radiation none the less." She said, pointing to Ed for the last part.

"We don't know how we did it either..." I answered quietly, speaking for the first time since we had arrived here. I looked over at Ed to see that he had a small smile on his face. He lifted up his head before, also, speaking for the first time.

"I didn't think I would make it. I agree with you, it seems impossible to get out of there with radiation." He paused before continuing.

"I don't know if I should do anything so soon after arriving here, but, do you have a phone I can use. I have to call my brother. Tell him I'm... alive." The woman stared at him, as if in sudden realization.

"Are you Edward Elric? Your brother, Alphonse, he's already here. He arrived by train just last night. I guess he knew this was the closest place to Hiroshima, but how he knew you would still be alive, I don't know." Ed's mouth fell open as he took in the information.

"Al... he's... here?" He jumped up off the counter he was sitting on.

"I have to see him, where is he?" His eyes dashed around the room, as if expecting his brother, this Alphonse, to be anywhere in the room. The woman smiled patiently and sighed before speaking.

"You know, Alphonse said you would react like this. Don't worry; I'll go get him now. Most people don't know your even here yet, I'll tell them also." And with that she walked out of the small room, leaving Ed and I alone.

"He's here… he's really… here… and I thought I would never see him again…" Ed's eyes had a crazed look to them as he spoke and his hands were shaking.

"I'll really be able to see him again. Hold him. Kiss him…" Ed threw his head back in the air and started laughing. Why he acted like this was beyond any of my reasoning and I chalked it up to the fact that we were both still in shock from the last two days. At least, all of it could be explained by shock except one thing Ed had said. "Kiss him." They were brothers, were the not? That was what Ed had repeated over and over, yet now he was saying this…

My thoughts were cut short as the woman walked back in, a boy who looked almost exactly like Ed running behind her. Alphonse Elric. It couldn't be anyone else. Edward and Alphonse both stood for a minute, looking like they couldn't believe they're eyes, which were brimming with tears, before Alphonse ran over to Ed and pulled his body into a tight embrace.

"Nii-san… brother… Edward…" Tears were streaming down both of their faces by now as Alphonse whispered into Ed's ear.

"You're okay… I thought… I thought you were dead!"

"Alphonse… Alphonse… Al… you're here… you're really here.. I really got to see you again… Alphonse…" I felt out of place, watching the two embracing and whispering. I turned my back to them and saw the woman smiling at them, not having heard what Edward had said earlier and probably just think of this as brotherly love. She than turned around and walked out of the room, probably to finish telling the villagers about us. Than I heard it.

The whispering had stopped, replaced by an all-together new noise. I turned around to see that it appeared my presence and certainly been forgotten. The two brothers were pressed against each other, no longer simply embracing. I felt my face flame up, just as Edward broke away from Alphonse, gasping, and opened his eyes, angled at just the right place to see me staring in horror.

"Shit…" Edward whispered just one word before blushing and quickly turning around. Alphonse, not having seen me before and consequently not knowing what had riled up Edward, turned my way and his eyes widened as soon as they fell on me.

"Who… she… what…?" He seemed to have lost his words in a state of horror and surprise. He blinked before choking out,

"Who are you? Why are you…" And looked back and forth between me and Edward, who had turned to face my way again.

"Aoi… oh shit. Shit shit shit. You saw… didn't you? It's not… hell it is." Now it was Ed who was glancing back and forth.

"Al… this is Aoi… she… helped me out of Hiroshima…" None of us spoke for a while after this, and finally Al and I both broke the silence at once, interrupting each other and speaking at the same time.

"But I thought you were brothers!"

"You helped Nii-san back?"

An hour of explaining two very different subjects, one by one, led us to where we were now. Alphonse knew the full story of being stuck in Hiroshima, and finding a way out, while I now knew the full story of the Elric brothers, their lives and their more than brotherly love. Their mother dying, their futile attempts to bring her back using a sort of sorcery called alchemy, all of which had to be explained to me, the price they had to pay and the journeys that followed, and the events that somehow ended in them finding themselves here, in my world, as they were apparently from another, a parallel universe excisable only through alchemy, and a horrible price. And than how over those years, going through everything two people could go through together, the love that had grown between them.

"You know, I couldn't believe my eyes when I first turned around." I said as we finished our stories.

"I knew you were brothers, I though it was horrifying, disgusting, at first. But, really, hearing this, I can see how. There's nothing wrong with it. Not if you really look at it."

Hearing this, Edward and Alphonse's eyes widened for a moment, than they both simultaneously smiled.

"Thank you, Aoi." Two equally happy voices said.

Edward and I were alive, the brothers reunited. Edward's promise had been fulfilled.


End file.
